Ma Mere [French] (2004) - 0/10

Ma Mere is a French film that one of my friends left with me and asked that I see because he thought it was exceptional. I saw it, and I am sorry to say that this is an exceptionally bad movie. It is one of those movies which I turned off before I reached half way into it (at 110 minutes the film is a pain to say the least).

I guess what happened was that my friend fell into that trap of thinking that since it is French it is profound (and I guess I fell for that a little as well). I like French films, and they usually have a better tab on sensitivity and are franker about sex and such. However, this movie may be frank about sex (in it's abundant nudity and explicit depiction) but is far from sensitive or profound.

The movie essentially follows the story of Pierre (Louis Garell, who I have seen before in a good performance in Bertolucci's The Dreamers ) who after his father's death, slowly descends into his mother's world of depravity and sexual excess (he lust after and eventually has sex with her - a scene which culminates in her death because of the "kink" involved - in 20X Fast-forward the second half of the film is eminently watchable). The Dreamers also had themes of incest and sexual excess, but if you compare the handling of the material in the two movies, you'll know why Bertolucci is considered one of the greats and Christopher Honore is one you (at least I) have never heard of. According to my French friend, George Bataille's novel is supposed to be pretty good, but is it any wonder that I am not really looking forward to reading it.

I give the film a big zero. I had originally given it 2 (for the nudity; beautiful French women) but I take away those points for the repeated close-ups of a male member with three piercings - oh! Painful! Painful!

Now, here's one movie that deserves the NC-17. Don't you know frank depictions can often end up being unappetizing. Should the non-pornographic depiction of Sex be such that it turns one away from it? I suppose Honore set-out to discourage the depravity, but I think he has succeeded in discouraging any sexual activity. Or perhaps the intent is to discourage anyone from seeing this movie.